I. Field of Invention
A litigation support system and method in which information regarding documents and other items of evidence are stored in record fields of an electronic database using an optical scanning mechanism with an ability to scan bar codes or other indicia means.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Litigation support systems can generally be classified into two different categories, "full text" systems, wherein each document or other item of evidence is either optically scanned and converted into computer readable data or manually keyed into a computer memory, and "bibliographic" systems, wherein only selected information from or about each document or other item of evidence is captured for manipulation by a computer. Both types of systems store and retrieve the recorded data using various computer database systems.
In a full text system, the recorded data is usually retrieved by performing word searches through a full text database. For example, a search might comprise an inquiry to find all documents wherein the word `litigation` is used within five words of `anticipate`. A resulting search through the full text database would yield a list of documents or other items of evidence meeting the above search criteria.
The benefits of full text systems have been questioned. First, the cost involved in scanning and converting each document or other item of evidence into a computer readable format to generate a full text database can be substantial. Second, the substantial storage requirements and search times needed to properly access a full text system can render such systems ineffective for litigation purposes. Finally, to establish an accurate full text system, each scanned or manually keyed document must be checked against the original document to assure an accurate conversion has been achieved. As a result of these and other problems associated with full text systems, users frequently decide to only record bibliographic information.
Bibliographic systems offer significant advantages over full text systems. These systems allow specific bibliographic information to be recorded, for example, a document's author, addressee, date, and general subject matter. Bibliographic systems cost less on average to generate and require significantly less storage space compared to full text systems. Additionally, search times are decreased in such systems when compared to full text systems. For a complete analysis of an improved type of bibliographic system see Feiler, William S., "Computer Aided Litigation Support In Patent Litigation", The Journal Of Law And Technology, pp. 177-190 (1983).
Searches in a bibliographic system might be more restricted when compared to full text systems but are still very informative. Searches are usually of the type as follows: all documents wherein Author=`Smith J.` and Topic=`litigation`. The results of this type of search will be a list of all records that have been "coded" (i.e., recorded) as Author: "Smith J." and Topic: "litigation".
Although bibliographic systems offer advantages over full text systems they do require substantial coding time and accurately stored information. In fact, with bibliographic systems, accurately stored information is extremely important due to the nature of bibliographic search requests. Specifically, if a person who is coding information misspells an author's name, that record may be lost in all searches of the system relating to that author's name.
Using the example stated earlier, a person coding a document authored by John Smith might manually enter "Simth, J.". When a search is performed for Author="Smith J.", the record with the misspelled entry will not be retrieved. As a result, that record will not be identified in that particular search diminishing the value of the bibliographic system.
Additionally, if a person coding a document enters an improper candidate for a record field entry, that misentered record field may not be identified during searches since the improper candidate may not be known to the person who later searches the system. As a result, those misentered records may become lost to the person searching the system further diminishing the value of the bibliographic system.
Continuing with the example as stated above, if a person coding a document types Topic="lawsuit" as a candidate for "litigation," any search of the database for Topic="litigation" will not retrieve that misentered document.
Those skilled in the use of these systems normally take steps to attempt to eliminate the above-identified errors in databases by developing protocols to prevent their introduction. Such steps are far from completely effective and require rigid procedures to try to contain such errors.
Additional problems exist in current bibliographic systems. When coding a bibliographic system repetitive entries are often encountered requiring system operators to retype the same entries with each encounter. Such redundancy is inefficient and adds to the time required to code those entries and can cause potential errors.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to improve existing litigation support systems by incorporating an optical scanning means capable of recognizing indicia placed on documents or other items of evidence.
Another object of this invention is to create a litigation support system that uses a single indicia means for relating several databases to permit separate and independent coding operations.
Another object of this invention is to use bar code technology in combination with a litigation support system to allow accurate coding and simple retrieval of information.
Another object of this invention is to use an authority list of indicia corresponding to input candidates for record field entries to allow a person to consistently and accurately input information thereby increasing the value of a litigation support system.
Objects and advantages of the invention are set forth herein and will also be readily appreciated here from, or may be learned by practice with the invention. These objects and advantages are realized and obtained by means of instrumentalities and combinations pointed out in the specification and claims.